Interviews

As part of a new collaboration with NIS America, a brand new fighting game from SNK is coming to Switch. SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is launching on Nintendo’s console this summer.

Recently, producer Yasuyuki Oda and director Kaito Soranaka were kind enough to field some questions about the game from Nintendo Everything. The two developers spoke about Switch, confirmed different game modes that will be present, and more.

It was just a couple of months ago that Gear.Club Unlimited made its way to Switch. Recently, we spoke with developer Eden Games to learn more about the process of bringing the racer to Nintendo’s console.

As for why Gear.Club Unlimited made sense on Switch in the first place, Eden Games explained:

Toshimichi Mori, the current director of Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle had a few words to say in a very short interview.

First, he addressed a gap he was trying to close between eastern and western players. He stated that the game would be for home use only (no arcade release) because he didn’t want Japanese players to have an edge.

He also mentioned something about pricing: The game is being released at a price lower than normal, with half of the character roster as optional paid DLC to make up for it. Not to worry too much, however: He also says that purchasing all DLC is not set to surpass the price of the base game.

Hand of Fate 2 is a possibility for Switch. Developer Defiant Development is looking into it at least. In an interview about Hand of Fate 2, communications manager Lee May said, “it’s definitely something we’re investigating.”

May’s full words:

“Definitely a possibility, but we’re not promising anything yet. The Switch is very popular around the studio and we recognize that the mobile format is a lovely fit for Hand of Fate’s gameplay. We don’t have anything to announce on the platform at the moment, but it’s definitely something we’re investigating. There are a ton of fantastic indies on the Switch right now, and we’d love to join them.”

If Hand of Fate 2 were to make it to Switch, it would be yet another well-loved indie series on the platform.

In a recent interview, GQ sat down with Super Mario Odyssey director Kenta Motokura and producer Yoshiaki Koizumi in preparation for the launch of the upcoming Mario title. Motokura and Koizumi discuss deciding on new environments, creating Cappy, delving into Mario and Peach’s relationship, and maintaining Mario’s longevity as a character and franchise.

We’ve rounded up the notable quotes below. You can read the interview in full here.

Switch has a major game landing this week in Super Mario Odyssey. It’s not the only 3D platformer heading to the console, however. Tomorrow, Poi is coming to Switch after initially missing out on Wii U.

We spoke with developer PolyKid just ahead of the launch to learn more about Poi. The studio chatted with us about the game itself, making the move from Wii U to Switch, and having to go up against Super Mario Odyssey in the same week.

One of the big highlights from the most recent Nindies Showcase was the announcement of Yono and the Celestial Elephants for Switch. And you won’t have to wait long to play it. It was announced during the same Nindies Showcase that Yono launches on October 12, meaning it’s just a few days away.

Ahead of the release, we caught up with Niklas Hallin from Neckbolt to learn more about Yono and the Celestial Elephants. Hallin spoke with us about the project’s development, what you can expect from the gameplay, how it’s inspired by Zelda, why the game is a fit on Switch including console exclusivity, and more. As a bonus, we have a rare screenshot from when Yono was originally imagined as a 2D title.

Announced last month, FAST RMX is receiving a new update in September. Players can look forward to a new wave of cups and tracks.

Since new content is coming to FAST RMX very soon, it was no better time for us than now to speak with developer Shin’en about the game. We talked with the studio’s Manfred Linzner about the Switch title and more during our discussion.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild marked a monumental step for the series in terms of how Nintendo portrayed its characters. For the first time, the game featured voice acting. Among others, Zelda was given a voice.

Patricia Summersett played the role of Zelda in the English version of Breath of the Wild. With the game’s first DLC pack arriving yesterday, we felt this would be the perfect opportunity to speak with Ms. Summersett about her role in the game. Continue on below for our full discussion.

In a recent GamesIndustry interview with the creative director of Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Laurent Malvill explains why him and his team have decided to make the game and bring life back to toys-to-life in the market.

“We think innovation can really bring life back into this market. We think that toys-to-life brought a lot of younger players into video games, and that was great. But we think as they grew up, the expectation grew with it. So for us, we didn’t want to do just another one like those games. It was important for us to innovate in this category. We didn’t want to innovate on just the toy itself – and we think we did do that – but also to innovate with the huge open world. We’re not talking down to the players. This is a big open world that you can spend time in.

“We think the toy is the whole game. That is the beauty of it – having that modular starship on-top of a controller. You don’t open a complex menu or anything, it is just there. You just grab the weapon, put it on and it appears right away. Or if you want another pilot, because I want to use his special ability in that fight, it is just there and it is the simplest way of doing it. And those collectibles, those starships, those pilots, what is beautiful is that once you’ve played the game for several hours, you can just put them on your bedside table or on your shelf.

But because we want to provide the maximum freedom for players to experience this game, we designed that idea that every physical part that you buy, you will unlock a digital part. So if you want the full experience, you can play with the starships on top of your controller. But if you want to just display the collectibles on your shelf, and play the game without them, you can do that as well.

You will also be able to buy the digital part separately, without the collectibles, if you want. Just because, again, we want to provide freedom for players. But the magical moment where you connect the part is something that is dear to us.

Approving crazy projects is part of the DNA of Ubisoft. If you look at Assassin’s Creed back in the day, or Just Dance… it is just part of what the company does. We were excited to show him what we’d done. And we were super happy that the top management team in Paris were just as excited as we were, and that we got to make it.”